Rapper 50 Cent on Gun Violence in Songs: 'Art Imitating Life'

(CNSNews.com) – Rapper 50 Cent said in an interview on CBS’s “Sunday Morning” that he does not think it’s glorifying gun violence if you draw from something you actually experienced.

“If you were doing that and you didn’t actually experience it, I would say you were glorifying it, but if you’re drawing from something, from your actual experience, isn’t it art imitating life?” he said after being asked whether his music glorifies gun violence.

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50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, survived being shot nine times in 2000 after leaving a life of crime as a drug dealer since the age of 12.

“No, I think that the actual films—I’m flattered actually when they say that to me, because it would mean that I’m so—I have such a strong hold on the youth or people in general that it completely changes their thought process or pattern. The music is that powerful,” 50 Cent said.

“So hip hop is more about than singing about guns is what you’re saying,” Smith asked him.

“It’s a lot more—It’s writing—If you were doing that and you didn’t actually experience it, I would say you were glorifying it, but if you’re drawing from something, from your actual experience, isn’t it art imitating life?” 50 Cent asked.